WASH LAC | Announcement 16 February 2021
For Spanish version,please scroll down |
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Dear WASH actors in LAC:
On January 26th, in response to the tropical depressions Eta and Iota that hit Honduras on November 2020, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) approved the activation of the WASH Cluster to support the urgent need to expand the response in the country. In total seven clusters have been activated including WASH (led by UNICEF), Food Security (co-led by WFP / FAO), Health (led by PAHO / WHO), Protection (led by UNHCR), Shelter (led by IFRC), Education (co-led by UNICEF / Save the Children) and CCCM (led by IOM).
In Honduras, the humanitarian situation is complex with pre-existing factors such as migratory flows, chronic food insecurity, the COVID-19 pandemic, other epidemics such as dengue, and now with the compounding dramatic impact of the two tropical depressions Eta / Iota in rural and high density urban areas. As a result, one of the greatest needs is in the area of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) including water wells contamination, latrine collapse and major damage to water and sewerage systems. As of December 14th , according to the government-led damage assessment by CONASA / SANAA / ERSAPS, 93.8% of drinking water systems (68.1% of the water systems are providing partial service and 25.2% are out of drinking water service) and 49.3% of sanitation systems are damaged. Additionally, 61% of the service providers reported that they needed materials or equipment support.
In January 2021, a nation-wide participatory initiative for the identification of sectoral gaps at community level led by our Regional WASH LAC Group and UNICEF Honduras and Regional team in close collaboration with the Government of Honduras (AHMON and CENISS) found that there were 2,975 communities affected by floods and landslides with a total population of 803,529 people of which 281,235 are girls, boys and adolescents. This was based on information collected in 209 of the 298 municipalities in the country. Additionally and complementing the December 2020 assessment, we found that 2,754 rural and urban water systems have been partially or totally affected during Eta/Iota with an affected population of 725,541 people. With full support from the government, the humanitarian community operating in Honduras launched a USD 16.2 M WASH Flash Appeal aimed at supporting 1.6 million people in need and 573,000 people affected by Eta and Iota (Flash appeal Dec. 2020).
The official activation of the Honduras WASH Cluster takes place in a context where the country already had a humanitarian WASH coordination mechanism for emergencies in Honduras co-led by UNICEF and the government (SANAA). This means that some of the cluster structures and systems are already underway with gap analysis and identification tools in place, regular coordination meetings, a platform for exchange and a robust coordination team at national and subnational level. The WASH Cluster has already deployed additional support including a dedicated National WASH Cluster Coordinator, a remote sub-national WASH Cluster Coordinator and a remote Information Management Officer. Based on needs for coordination and scale of the impact of Eta/Iota, we would like to encourage the organizations present in Honduras to strive to expand their WASH response in the country in close coordination with the established Honduras WASH Cluster to scale up the WASH response linking the humanitarian response with development.
For more information about the Honduras WASH Cluster, please visit: https://www.washlac.com/esp/honduras
For more information about the Regional WASH LAC Group: https://www.washlac.com/ |
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Best Regards,
The WASH-LAC group
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SPANISH
Saludos cordiales,
El Grupo WASH-LAC
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Photo credits: © UNICEF/UN0372338/Cálix/AFP-S |
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